I bought some 9" Alewief pattern Sluggos and Fin-S-Fish and was wondering on the correct way to fish these lures in a strong current situation. Adding a weighted jig head is a solution but how much of the lures natural action do you loose by doing so. I was also wondering if I were drifting a channel in my skiff and bounced these lures along the bottom wether or not this would be productive.

Marc

BobG

05-13-2004, 09:44 PM

stripah,

Here's the way we do it "canal style".

Since the canal is a deep channel, with a strong current, it takes strong measures to get that lure down deep, and fast. We typically use a 3-5oz jig head. I take my 9" Slug-go, and nip off approx 3/4" of the head section of the plastic bait. The reason I do this is I want the plastic bait to make a smooth, seamless transition when I attach it to the jig head.
I lay the Slug-go next to the jig head, and more or less determine where I'd like the hook point to exit the bait once it has been worked onto the jig.
You want this to be fairly precise, otherwise the bait might ride sideways once rigged. It will still work, but with a little practice, you will so do it perfectly every time.
Now, before I run the bait up onto the shank of the hook, and onto the head, I place a couple drops of super glue, crazy glue, zap-a-gap or equivelent onto the hook shank, and a drop onto the back of the jig head . Then, immedietly slide the plastic bait onto the shank, and hold it for several second to let the super glue adhere.
If done properly, the rigged bait will take many fish before it need to be re-glued or replaced.

Good luck.

assinippi

05-14-2004, 06:53 AM

There is almost no wrong way to rig a Sluggo. With an unweighted hook in the head (you can run it down the middle of the bait or you can simply push it in the bottom of the head and out the top, a method which I prefer) it makes a great surface lure. With various jig heads (I have rigged them with heads from 3/8 to 5 ounces) they fish at whatever depth you want them. from a drifting boat you can get down 50' with a 1 1/8 to 1 1/2 oz jig head. My standard rigs are:

4-5" Finessfish, Sluggos or clones 3/8 to 1/2 oz jig heads
6-7" Finessfish, Sluggos or clones 1/2 to 1 1/2 oz jig heads, depending on depth. I also rig this size Finnessfish on 3-5 oz bucktails for the canal.
6-7" Finessfish, Sluggos or clones, no weight, not a great casting, but deadly at times for surface feeding fish (I have caught a number of Albies this way)
9-10" Finessfish, Sluggos or clones, no weight, great almost anywhere. Great in the rips whem squid are around. I like big circle hooks. The fish just suck them in and swim away, hooking themselves, although I usually set out of habit and the circle hooks still hookup just like a J hook.
9-10" Finessfish, Sluggos or clones 1 to 5 oz jig heads, depending on depth. I use weighted 9-10" Finessfish, Sluggos or clones primarily in the canal, and attach them to 3-5 oz bucktails.

No matter how you rig the bait, add a drop of superglue to the hook whan you assemble it and you will double the life of the bait. Also, take a look at some of the clones like Berkley slimey slugs or Ledgerunner hand poured baits. They are more durable and offer size and silouette options. The Slimey slug has the best sandeel color and silouette of any soft bait I've seen so far. The Ledgerunner 9" is just unbelieveably durable, and they make a 13"!

bdowning

05-14-2004, 08:20 AM

Two, well three, other suggestions in addition to the already good ones:

1. Netter's makes a nice, durable handpoured tuffcore lance sluggo with a cord running through it. Hard to find in stores (Kay at Surfland in Plum Island has them). But can be ordered through www.netterisinc.com (http://www.netterisinc.com). The blue ice color is really productive.

2. Zoom Super Flukes in shad and albino has been even more productive for me than sluggos or Fin S so far this season.

3. Carolina rigging a lance type of plastic is a good way of getting hits on the flats if you don't want to deal with fly fishing and need to get down in a channel with current. Take a sluggo or charm assassin, thread on an offset hook, and superglue the head. Tie fluoro leader to the eye of the hook and the other end to a small swivel. Put a small egg slip sinker above the swivel on the main line and tie to swivel. Cast the rig out and let it roll with the current or simply do a slow retrieve. Dead ringer for an escaping sand eel.

-bd

Cswanson

05-14-2004, 09:40 AM

On the 9" Sluggos and 10" FinS I also like to add large prism eyes if I'm not using a lead head with eyes. :)